World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman expects a mandatory challenger to get ordered in near future for WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Fury has been out of the ring since December, when he dominated and stopped Derek Chisora in their trilogy fight.

At the moment, Fury has no opponent and no return date finalized.

Last year, the WBC ordered a series of eliminators to establish a new mandatory challenger for the 'Gypsy King.'

In the first leg, Andy Ruiz won a twelve round decision over Cuban puncher Luis Ortiz. On the other side of the bracket, Deontay Wilder crushed Robert Helenius in one round.

Wilder and Ruiz were then ordered to meet in a final world title eliminator, but the two sides never came close to a deal and there doesn't appear to be one on the horizon.

The WBC remained on the sidelines, because they were hoping that Fury would reach a deal to face WBO, IBF, WBA, IBO champion Oleksandr Usyk for an April fight. Those negotiations fell apart and now Usyk will defend against Daniel Dubois in August,

"We have to take some action," Sulaiman told Sky Sports. "There are different options. I'm going to address this with the board of governors, because already we're entering June and there's no scenario. Tyson Fury will make us proud and show who the WBC champion is.

"[The order for Wilder-Ruiz] was announced since November. We've been patiently trying to do that. We didn't push it in the hope that Fury would fight Usyk. So that was all the way to March [when the Fury-Usyk negotiations collapsed]. So we have to take some decisions."

There is a possibility that former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will become the new mandatory challenger to Fury.

"That's a possibility. If Wilder and Ruiz are not fighting for the final elimination, Joshua's right there at No 3. That's possible," Sulaiman said.

"I don't want to speculate because that would be irresponsible to try to make something up. We have to go through a process. The WBC board of governors will make that decision.

"At this stage anything is possible. There's too much talent, too many great fights, too many great combinations that could be made for heavyweight and everything is stalled."

Joshua is already slated to fight in the month of August, possibly in a rematch with Dillian Whyte. And then he intends to fight in December, in a potential scrap with former WBC champion Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.